China, Japan take ‘first step’ towards improving ties

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe met Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing on the sidelines of the Apec meeting in a bid to resolve their long-standing differences.

China’s president Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Beijing on November 10, 2014. This is the first formal meeting between the two leaders since they took office. Kim Kyung-Hoon/ReutersShow less

BEIJING // China and Japan broke a two-and-a- half year summit drought as the leaders of Asia’s two largest economies sought to repair ties frayed by territorial and historical disputes.

Televised footage showed Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese president Xi Jinping standing stiffly without smiling ahead of a meeting that ran for about 25 minutes and which China’s official Xinhua News Agency said was requested by Japan. Mr Abe’s visit to Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is his first trip to China since taking office in December 2012.

“This is a first step toward improving ties between Japan and China and returning to the starting point of a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests,” Mr Abe said afterward. The countries will work towards a mechanism to enhance maritime communications, he said.

A row over the sovereignty of islands in the East China Sea has hurt relations, and Mr Abe compounded tensions last year by visiting a Tokyo war shrine seen by some as a symbol of Japan's past aggression in Asia. With China having eclipsed Japan as the world's second-largest economy, Mr Abe has sought to improve ties with his nation's largest trading partner.

“The framework agreement between China and Japan, and the important symbolism of the meeting today is the long overdue return of pragmatism towards each other,” said Kerry Brown, executive director of the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre. “The key thing is that both sides in meeting have shown they agree things have to be mended now.”

High-level talks last week between the countries produced an agreement on overcoming political obstacles that paved the way for today’s meeting.

Mr Xi told Mr Abe that he hopes Japan will continue to follow the path of peaceful development and adopt prudent military and security policies, Xinhua reported.

Japanese deputy chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the meeting was held in a “gentlemanly” atmosphere. “There are problems, but we should avoid letting them damage the overall relationship,” he said in Beijing.

Japan's purchase in September 2012 of three of the East China Sea islands sparked friction with China and damaged trade ties that are still recovering. Chinese coastguard vessels frequently enter what Japan regards as its territorial waters around the island chain, increasing the risk of conflict.

While Chinese tourists are flocking to Japan, Japanese investment in China slumped by half in the first half of 2014 and surveys show animosity among the public in both nations.

“The Chinese authorities appear to have been reluctant or unwilling to meet the Japanese side, to appease domestic nationalist sentiment that has risen in past years,” said Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian studies at the Academy of Social Sciences in Heilongjiang. “But in fact the meeting conforms to the interests of both sides.”

The two countries in their framework agreement last week acknowledged their differing views on the tensions around the islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, and agreed to prevent the situation from deteriorating. To avoid “unforeseen incidents” in the area, they pledged to build a crisis-management mechanism.

Both nations agreed to gradually restart various political, diplomatic and security talks that were frozen as ties soured. China has demanded Japan do more to acknowledge its militant past and the countries said in their joint statement they now agreed to face history directly.

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said it was encouraging that Mr Xi and Mr Abe arranged a meeting.

“It’s in everyone’s interests that all the countries of our region get on as well as possible,” he said in Beijing. “We will all advance together or none of us will advance at all.”

* Bloomberg News